A Swiss Stop

I arrived in Switzerland on Friday, and have since been busy catching up with one of my best friends from Vail (winter 2005), Chiara. It has been WONDERFUL to see CHIARA. Her name came up so many times last season when she could not return to Vail. I can't help but smile when listening to her unique Swiss-Italian/Aussie accent, and I still giggle--like it`s the first time--when hearing her coin phrase, "I`m from the Italian part of Switzerland."

She has introduced me to her friends, whom are all quite funny. They tried to accomodate my deficiency in Italian, by introducing me to New Field (Campo Novo) and Uncle First (Uncle Primero). It was similarly funny when asked me why I'm not Italian, "Juliana is an Italian name!" they exclaim. I think I confused them with my Korean face and Norweigan last name.

Chiara and I have spent the past few days enjoying the sunshine, relaxing and looking at photos by the pool, exploring the Bellinzona castles, and tasting true Swiss cheese! I am a big fan of Raclette--there's nothing better than warm melted cheese!

The other day, Chiara, her sister Lidia, and I followed a car-full of their Swiss guy friends to Bergamo, Italy to watch an Italian National soccer match. Just like most good road trips, most everyone was alert and excited on the drive there, and sleeping during the car ride home. We visited her friend's uncle, Uncle Primo, which is about one and a half hour drive away. We sat in their garden and drank real Italian red wine, and then had a dart match in the lawn. Later, we drove through the tiniest streets along castle walls to go to dinner at an outdoor tent. A man was rambling on the microphone, leading a game similar to Bingo (and probably begging for money to support their cause). We played a few rounds, and Chiara even won three bottles of wine. We had finished dinner before I even thought about asking what the purpose of the event was...I'd figured it was some church fundraiser or something, but it turned out to be a political party for Italian Communism! What a surprise...



Back in Switzerland, I also had a couple nice dinners with Chiara's family. Her parents were super sweet and her dad taught me all about the three basic kinds of cheese: formaggio, formagella, formaggini. With some tutoring from Chiara, I am now a cheese expert. I giggled when I asked Chiara to categorize Cheddar cheese, and she returned a disgusted look and said, "That cheese is orange!" Apparently my orange cheese is not up to Swiss standards. I then taught Chiara about the three kinds of cheese in my life, plastic sandwich cheese, nacho cheese, and cheese whiz.

Though I have only seen a little bit of Switzerland so far--Ticino, the Italian part, is only about 5% of the total population--it has been great. It's BEAUTIFUL, just BEAUTIFUL here. Chiara's house is located in a valley, and her backyard has the most gorgeous view of mountains and Swiss villages on the mountain. The mountains are a bit different; they look much steeper than Colorado mountains, they're covered in "bushy trees" instead of "Christmas trees," and they seem HUGE because the towns are located at a much lower elevation than the mile high city back home. I think the mountains are actually smaller than the Rocky Mountains at home...I'll have to look that up. Apart from the cleansing surroundings of open air and mountains, the town is also super clean, and I love the city cute buildings and cobblestone mainstreet.
It was really fun to have a drink at Fun bar in the city center, found in the small side streets of Bellinzona, just below the night lights of the first castle.

Tommorrow, we are off to Venice, which means tonight is for hurriedly packing, booking hostels and (things we should have done weeks ago, had we KNOWN where we were going). It's all been a bit spontaneous, which I guess is the way I like it, because it's the way most of my friends seem to do it. Though I have been doing a little bit more sleeping than usual (which is to be expected when one has changed as many time zones and borders as I have in the past two weeks), but there has been plenty to do in Bellinzona, Switzerland!